Conditions on Mount Baldy in winter can change quickly with wind and snow blasting the higher elevations. Here climber John Dahlem makes his way to the summit.

Near white-out conditions at the summit of Mount Baldy can cause climbers to lose their way.

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This undated image provided by KTLA-TV shows Michelle Yu, who was reported missing on Mount Baldy, after failing to return from a hike Dec. 4. A sheriff's spokeswoman says Yu had food and water with her but was planning only a day hike and wasn't dressed for the storm that hit the mountain Sunday night with rain, wind and snow.

The Los Angeles County Coroner and Sheriff's deputies are shown Dec. 9 at a staging area where officials recovered the remains of 49-year-old Michelle Yu, whose body was discovered the previuos day on Mount Baldy.

The Los Angeles County Coroner and Sheriff's deputies are shown Dec. 9 at a staging area where officials recovered the remains of 49-year-old Michelle Yu, whose body was discovered yhe previous day on Mount Baldy.

Climber John Dahlem makes his way up the bowl on Mount Baldy. The dots on the snow behind and below are other climbers. At 10,068 feet, the mountain can be challenging but also treacherous.

Gerald Kern on a recent hike.

Steep escarpments surround the Mount Baldy summit making the terrain in winter especiall dangerous. A climber can be spotted in the center right.

The morning of Dec. 4, 2010, at the Mount Baldy trailhead started like many beautiful days.

Climbers with all kinds of goals and all kinds of equipment gathered in the parking lot and sorted gear. Some carried crampons, ice axes and helmets, hoping to make the snowy and icy 10,068-foot summit.

Others had simpler plans.

Ron Campbell, Register writer and accidents and incidents investigator for the Sierra Club’s local safety committee, didn’t take much equipment that day and turned around at the ski hut, a place where climbers often gear up for the mountain’s slippery slopes.

Campbell signed the log book at 8:20 a.m. and had supper with his family that night.

Michelle Yu signed the log about 8:30 a.m. Her body was recovered five days later.

I’ll share an e-mail from Orange County climber Gerald “Brian” Kern as well as an e-mail that Yu sent Kern in June. Both serve as reminders that even experienced hikers and climbers make mistakes, me included. And there often are more steps we can take to manage risk.

Kern, of Westminster, served as a volunteer in December and spent three days searching for his friend, Yu. “I believe her passing could have been avoided,” Kern wrote, “had she been carrying a simple compass and perhaps sunglasses, two of the ’10 Essentials.'”

YU CLIMBS MOUNT RAINIER

From May 28 to 31, Yu, a Venice resident, joined the Korean Alpine Club for her third climb on Mount Rainier. On June 6 she sent Kern this e-mail:

“Rainier was dramatic. Throughout the trip Rainier was under some stormy weather systems of one kind or another, except for about a 12-hour window.

“No glorious summit was reached. I don’t think any team made the summit on Sunday due to the dangerous conditions and the storm moving in.

“The summit climb was slow going since we were the first team to be starting the climb and had to break the trail in many sections. After climbing for about two hours, I was first to voice that the team should turn around when the ‘workhorse’ – who was roped up behind the leader and just in front of me – started to stumble for lack of sleep or for some other reason, like a high altitude issue.

“A short while later, we eventually did turn around for a combination of reasons, such as encountering hidden crevasses, a storm front moving in, etc.”

EXPERIENCE NOT EVERYTHING

Campbell climbed the San Gabriels with Yu and described her as “a very strong, very experienced hiker.”

You see people in sneakers,” Campbell said of people trying to climb Mount Baldy, “and then somebody like Michelle Yu buys it.”

Kern offered a quick resume for Yu:

• An avid mountaineer with experience on Denali, Rainier, Shasta and other peaks.

• Compass/map – “I had a conversation with her while hiking earlier this year where we discussed my GPS. She stated she did not carry a GPS or compass.”

• She suffered snow blindness on Rainier and expressed concern about forgetting her sunglasses the day of her death.

• Conditions/visibility – “While searching for Michelle, I hiked with two people who summited around the time (Yu did) and they described the conditions as poor. On one website, a woman described the summit as completely obscured.

“Personally, I believe Michelle mistook the trail heading north. Without a compass, this mistake may have been made due to white-out conditions or cloud cover.”

MISTAKES ON RAINIER

Yu’s account of her Rainier climb continues”

“Looking back, it was incredible that we did not even practice self arrest before roping up. How foolish we were! I have never seen any one of them executing self arrest but roped up with them.

“I made the mistake of not wearing sunglasses…until the skies were cleared in the afternoon. I suffered from snow blindness.

“I could not see the contours of the trail while descending in the white-out condition and had to follow very closely behind a team member and another followed me out to make sure I got down safely. My vision has recovered about 95 percent.

OTHER LESSONS

After searching for Yu, Kern returned home shaken and concerned.

“Out of that experience,” he wrote, “I would reinforce the following:”

• Weather conditions change, rapidly. If you find yourself lost due to weather, just wait a while.

• Always bring a headlamp with a flashing strobe.

• Carry a SPOT (a satellite GPS device that messages location and emergency). “I carry the darn thing mainly because I seldom have cell phone coverage and my family/friends are able to log onto a website to track us.”

• Don’t hike alone.

NO CLIMBER PERFECT

“All of us hikers,” Kern wrote, “have at some point done something stupid on a mountain.

“On a 32-mile day-hike while bagging peaks around San Gorgonio, I set my pack down to quickly summit a peak. Upon coming down, I couldn’t locate my pack.”

Campbell is an especially thoughtful climber and he is quick to point out there is no blame for what happened to Yu. Kern and I would agree.

Still, Yu left us with reminders that we all can improve our safety practices.

David Whiting has climbed the highest mountains in North and South America; dwhiting@ocregister.com.

David Whiting is the award-winning Metro Columnist at The Orange County Register. He also can be heard on radio, has served as a television news anchor and speaks frequently at organizations and universities. He previously was an assistant managing editor and has received Columbia University’s Race and Ethnicity Award, National Headliner awards and Sigma Delta Chi’s Public Service Award. He recently was invited to participate in an exchange program with Chinese journalists. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his master’s from Columbia University’s Graduate School for Journalism. He is a two-time Ironman, a two-time Boston marathoner and has climbed the highest mountains in Africa and North and South America.